Living Antiquity

~23~

I rode along, my skin smeared in rudimentary herbal sunscreen, gritting my teeth at every shift if my armor and every straining movement of the skin on my shoulders.
"I'm almost there, I just passed Scalding Spear."
"Seriously? You just left Base an hour ago..." Drakka frowns, "How're your shoulders holding up?"
"Sore. Displeased with any form of friction and contact, as always with a sunburn. I don't miss being on the streets and getting a sunburn every other day. Took months to get a place in a tent village under an underpass- they gave me a guy's tent when he passed away, once they got his stuff out. Said he'd already been talking about letting me have it. But that's where I lived til Trav found me, and I gave it to a girl that was my age." I said softly, "Came to check on her every month, too. Got her a job and she eventually became part of the Zero Dawn team, if I remember correctly. Only a Beta member, but still... She was so intelligent. Got kicked out cause her parents wanted her to keep quiet about her uncle's business."
"Sounds rough... But that means she went to Elysium right?" Aloy asks.
"Yeah. She got to live long our her natural span there. I hope she had the best end of her life." I say, relaxing.
"Hey thanks for the medical holos. Kentokk might make it... hell of a scar, though." Drakka says, clearly frowning.
A weak chuckle is heard, "A new mark can go over it."
I sigh, winding the mountain paths and trying to get my bearing using Aloy and Drakka's markers. "Damn... Some of these paths are a bit more confusing than I thought... and I'm having a helluva time dodging machine sites."
"Do you need me to come lead the way?" Drakka asks.
"No, that'd just put two targets in their way. Piglet's doing good, we're just having to give machines we don't recognize a larger berth."
"Don't look at me like that," Drakka says in his pouty voice.
"Oh, let me just guess- she saw right through you."
"So did you two-"
"No." I snap, "Jackass 2.0 decided to kiss me before doing the stupid things he did when he got there. Better known as letting Avalanche drop him... how many hundreds of feet?!"
Aloy snorts and I hear Drakka groan.
"I'm fine though!"
"You could've very easily not been! What if there was debris under where you landed?"
"I doublechecked!"
"Oookay, I'm just gonna..." Aloy leaves the call as Drakka and I bicker back and forth.
"Y/n, I'm fine..."
"You get bent out of shape if I move wrong with my sunburn, but you get ti skydive into murky, shrapnel filled water?... Can you see how that might have a bit more of an effect on me?" I asked.
He sighs, going quiet, and I finally see the muddy marsh that apparently used to be a village and was flooded ten minutes ago, "I'm here..."
"Thought you got lost?"
"I got better." I hop off of Piglet's back, wincing from my movements, and trek my way through the mud to them, seeing Aloy and a woman chatting as Drakka leans against a metal wall, arms folded.
"I'm fine, see, not a scratch on me." He says, opening his arms as I sigh and walk over, leaning on him and dropping my head on his chest.
"You're a dolt is what you are... A dolt and a thunderjaw magnet..." I groan.
"And a beauty magnet~"
I could head the grin behind that one,  and sigh, thumping his side and taking a step back as he winces from the impact, "You're lucky I-"
"Hey, you two..." Aloy looks over at us, "I'm gonna help them hunt at least enough meat to get them through the night, then we can head out, okay?"
I nod, watching her leave, until I feel him yank me back in.
"I'm sorry..." he mutters.
"Holy shit, the Desert Commander, apologizing? I'm in shock...!" I deadpan, until I feel him kiss my ear.
"I'll be fine! I wasn't under long. The impact from the drop knocked the wind out of me, but I managed not to breathe ashblood mud..." he mutters as I look up at him and cup his face, smearing the colors of his paint together.
"Uh... whoops... what the hell? That stuff normally stays put no matter what happens to you..." I blink, and feel him tense, pulling back and wiping at his face, before groaning.
"Shit, guess its time to redo it..." he sighs and turns away, fuming.
"You not like people seeing you without your paint?"
"S'not that. I haven't been without it for more than a few minutes in my life, even when I was a kid- we have paint styles for kids until they teach the age they're split into squads," He points out as he digs in his sidepouch, sitting down and spreading his kit.
I sit, watching him work.
About the time he wiped the face paint off, I realized I was probably in trouble.
The most babyfaced grown man I've ever seen, what the hell-
"Okay, I knew you had babyface features, but what the hell? How do you look twelve and thirty at the same time?" I deadpan, watching him.
He tenses, face getting a red tinge as he stares at me before pouting, "I am a healthy twenty three summers, thanks."
"I mean I guess everybody ages differently but holy shit. If Trav could see, he'd think I was making out with a high schooler..." I groan and rub my face.
He raises an eyebrow, leaning forward to look at me, "Nah. Probably not. But he'd see a beautiful desert specimen with his sister~" he smirks, wagging his eyebrows at me.
I feel my face heating up and look away again, fuming as he laughs and starts working on his paint again, before stopping and setting the kit down again, pulling me over so I was sitting next to him, "Think you know my pattern from memory?" He smirks, and hands me the brushes, closing his eyes and sitting there.
Pretty easy to see what he actually wanted...
"You can be absolutely insufferable, you know that?" I ask, watching his shit-eating grin spread across his face.
"You love me~" he grins, not even opening his eyes.
I sigh, and pull him by the collar of his armor, the emotional rollercoaster of the last few hours settling a bit as I kiss his forehead, feeling him slump with disappointment, "There, that's my revenge for earlier." I smirk and kiss his lips, yelping when he instantly pulls me closer.
He grins against the kiss, clearly a very happy camper.
If he had a tail, it'd be wagging...
Finally, I just let myself melt, only breaking the kiss to swat his hand when it went on an unplanned rkad trip, "That level of intimacy is currently beyond me..." I mumble, leaning my head on his shoulder as he just nods and holds me.
"I had watched a couple romance holos while we were at your team's base, but they're super cheesy..." he says.
"Yeah... I never really liked them..." I sigh and lean more into the hug, "Apparently Trav suggested a good portion of his personal collection of smut holos before they finally stopped letting him submit stuff."
Drakka busts out laughing, snorting into the armor on my shoulder, the pressure pain from my skin outweighed by the sheer amusement of the situation.
I finally feel myself relax, letting it sink in.
I'm a thousand years in the future and I have a fucking boyfriend.
On top of trying to help save the world, I managed to saddle myself with an emotional commitment.
God I hope I don't fuck this up...
--
She laughed after a couple of minutes, I guess finally catching up with the joke.
Honestly, still hurts that she got mad about me falling out of Avalanche's talons, and that she had a crisis over my face, but...
She's from the old world and isn't Tenakth. Her values would be different... right...?
Just hope we make it past the Zeniths... And NEMESIS...
Tenakth tend to not live past their thirties cause of wars and battle. Some of the people in the tribe now are the oldest we've ever had due to Chief Hekarro's reign...
... It's better when she's laughing. At least if she's laughing, I know there's nothing to worry about.
But then she gets that damn look on her face... The one that says she's worrying just as much as Aloy, that she thinks all this is somehow her fault.
If everything had gone perfect...
I wouldn't exist, right?
If everything was perfect, I wouldn't get ti hold her. I wouldn't have gotten to kiss her right now, and she might even be dead by now due to having probably been cured sooner, waking up sooner, right?...
Two months ago I didn't think I'd ever be able to stop Yarra's bullshit with our water supply.
A month ago I didn't know I'd fall this hard for her when I met her.
Hell, a month ago, I thought that these seven tribes were IT.
That the Old Ones fought until they all killed each other, and they left nothing for us.
...
They left me you.
They left us Gaia.
Gaia's awake again.
And I'm holding you...
Isn't that all that matters?...
--
Finally, I remembered what we were supposed to be doing, and grabbed his brushes, working on his face paint again as he watches.
"Can't do your eyelids if they're open, ya know..." I point out.
He chuckles and closes his eyes, "Yeah, guess not."
I work, finishing it up and double checking it, frowning, "I think I did it right?..."
"Considering how much you stare at this beautiful mug, you probably did." He chuckles and I groan, whacking his upside the head as he opens his eyes.
Yeah, I got it right. Hell, maybe even better than what he normally does.
He looks at me as I try to pack his kit up back up how he had it. "Hey..."
I look at him, raising an eyebrow as he cups my face.
"Stop worrying so much... Everything will be fine. Look at how much you've done in a month. Two months..." he speaks more softly than normal... a tone I haven't heard from him before... "You and Aloy have got to stop trying to shoulder the world. We're all here to take the burden off, take the weight snd the pain. And stop wishing shit had gone the way your brother's group wanted it. Blood of the Ten, I wouldn't be able to fucking kiss you if it had..." he fumes, keeping my head still so I'd look at him, "You're not gods, and you sure as hell aren't untouchable... I've seen soldiers die from worrying too much."
I bit my lip, feeling the tears well up, before finally letting the dam break, the tears flowing as I kiss him, his cheeks, his forehead, eyes, anything I could reach ignoring the taste of his face paint, as he tries to calm my down, the tears turning into panicked-sounding sobs.
How the hell...
But he's right. If it'd gone right, I wouldn't have met him. Everything would have been different to an unbearable level...
"Sorry..." I whisper, feeling my body shake with the release of negativity, "G-Guess I needed that..." I lean my forehead against his, shaking and trying to catch my breath, feeling his hands on my arms to keep me upright.
"Tired again?" He asks, watching me.
"No. Not tired... Stress and depression have fun effects on the body..." I groan, "Next time I sleep, the rest of the nervous energy will probably come off... Then my joints will crack so loud in the morning I'll winder if I'm a glowstick..."
He chuckles and tries to ease me off his lap, "Alright, desert flower... I think you put my legs to sleep..."
I nod, shuffling back and snagging the last of his war paint kit, standing up as he groans and pushes himself up.
"Hey, there you are..." Natikka says from nearby.
Was probably waiting for a more polite time to talk to him.
Drakka frowns and looks over at me.
"Go be a Commander, they need you." I smile, just glad his paint held up to meeting my teary ass face.
He nods and looks to Natikka, "Do you guys need anything other than rations?"

---
If this chapter seems awkward- it is because I apparently suck at writing romance.
I struggle not to turn everything I touch into angst...
If you didn't find it cringy- Yay! Thank you.
I promise there will be more actual story progression in the very very near future.